More Seek a Lift From Cosmetic Surgery

At her job with the Department of Defense, Barbara McCoy sometimes gets asked out by men half her age.

Even so, the 58-year-old McCoy, who teaches government and military employees how to spend tax dollars wisely, was sitting in a doctor’s chair recently, talking about changing her appearance.

In the next few months, McCoy plans to undergo cosmetic surgery--she’ll have fatty pockets removed from under her eyes and have her eyelids lifted a bit.

“I look good, but I want to look better, and I don’t think that’s being conceited,” the Oxnard resident said with the Southern drawl she acquired growing up in South Carolina and Tennessee.

McCoy is among an increasing number of Ventura County residents going under the knife or the laser to improve their looks, surgeons throughout the county say.

“The amount of cosmetic surgery I’m doing has doubled,” said Dr. Brian Brantner, who runs a cosmetic and reconstructive surgery practice in Ventura and is an assistant clinical professor in UCLA’s plastic surgery department.

Brantner performs 400 to 500 major surgeries a year, 80% of which are cosmetic procedures. Ten years ago, 40% of his surgeries were cosmetic.

That mirrors a statewide trend. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons does not keep county-by-county statistics, but there were 132,685 cosmetic surgery procedures performed statewide in 1998, up from 84,308 in 1994.

For years, Dr. Robert Improta, a Camarillo plastic surgeon, had been on call at hospitals throughout the county in case patients need emergency reconstructive surgery. But the demand for elective cosmetic surgeries such as breast augmentations and face lifts has increased so much in his practice that he had to hire another doctor to handle reconstructive surgeries.

“People want to look their best,” he said. “It’s to the point where dress, makeup and haircut don’t cut it.”

The Coastal Community Surgery Center saw 200 cosmetic surgery patients last year, but demand is increasing, said clinic administrator Jennie Battistin.

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“When we first opened up, we were busy one day a week,” Battistin said. “Now we’re going a full three days and a half day on the fourth day.”

Soon the clinic, which provides nurses, facilities and equipment to three cosmetic surgeons for a fee, will be open five days a week, she said.

The reasons for the boom in Ventura County’s plastic surgery business are as diverse as the people who walk through surgeons’ doors.

A soaring economy has left clients with more disposable income. Brantner sees patients who have just sold a home and have held on to a portion of the cash to get a face lift.

And monthly payment plans have made cosmetic surgery, previously considered a procedure only available to the wealthy, within reach of the middle class.

Baby boomers are aging, which means a whole generation is looking in the mirror, some wondering if a lift here and a tuck there might improve their quality of life.

Procedures and technology have improved, making nose jobs, breast augmentations, face lifts, tummy tucks and liposuction possible with smaller incisions and shorter recovery times.

And the stigma plastic surgery has carried with some--as a vain, unnatural endeavor reserved for Beverly Hills types--is fading.

In fact, today some of those Beverly Hills types are finding Ventura County’s clinics quiet and paparazzi-free havens where they can alter their bodies, Battistin said.

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But 90% of the cosmetic surgery patients Battistin sees are Ventura County residents like McCoy, who said she’s glad that reputable clinics are available close to home.

When the Coastal Community Surgery Center opened 11 years ago in Westlake Village, mostly corrective eye surgeries were performed there. Then the center, which moved to Thousand Oaks six years ago, began getting an increasing number of requests about cosmetic surgery--requests that were answered with referrals to surgeons in the Los Angeles area.

But the frequency of the requests prompted the center to open a cosmetic surgery department a year ago under Battistin’s direction.

Surgeons say another part of the reason for the increase is the fact that more of the patients are men these days.

Thirty percent of the clients surgeons see at the Coastal Community Surgery Center are men, Battistin said.

She expects that number to increase to 40% in the next five years.

Many of the men are getting face and eyebrow lifts. Most are fiftysomething executives who are changing jobs, Battistin said.

“They feel they need to get an edge there and keep up with the younger people,” she said.

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